iPhone passes BlackBerry in Canada for first time

For all the struggles that Research In Motion has been going through over the last few years, its BlackBerry still held the top spot in its home market of Canada. That comfort is now gone, as the latest data suggests the iPhone outsold BlackBerry in RIM’s home turf last year.

Data from IDC and Bloomberg said that there were 2.08 BlackBerry smartphones sold in Canada last year compared to 2.85 iPhones, according to TheStar. Just four years ago, BlackBerry outsold the iPhone in Canada five to one.

To be fair, the 2-3 million units aren’t that much overall when you consider that both Apple and RIM are global players in the smartphone world but losing in its backyard has to sting for the BlackBerry maker. RIM’s new CEO has only been on the job for a few months, so we have yet to see how he’s going to stop the company’s slide.

RIM’s BlackBerry World Conference is coming in early May and I’ve been told that I should absolutely attend because there should be some new hardware shown off. We thought we would have seen BlackBerry 10 shown off at Mobile World Congress but I think RIM was holding off its next-generation smartphone platform for its own party.